


All In Due Time

by Crowlows19



Series: All in Due Time [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Cute, Fluff, M/M, Pranks, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-02
Updated: 2015-05-02
Packaged: 2018-03-26 17:38:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,472
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3859075
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crowlows19/pseuds/Crowlows19
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A quick story about Tom Riddle and his favorite time-traveling nuisance. One-shot.</p>
            </blockquote>





	All In Due Time

Tom Riddle had been just as interested in the time traveling Gryffindor as everyone else. After all, a time traveler was a very unique person and Tom was fascinated by unique people. Especially, when there was a bit of unraveling to be done in discovering their secrets. He had always enjoyed that unraveling even if it left that person a quivering, pathetic mess. It was a mystery solved and Tom would be satisfied to move on to the next unique person.

But Harry Tempus (a cover up name that was also a blatant reminder to everyone of the boy’s origins) was a difficult mystery to solve. He had only been in their six year classes for a month or so and he had already become Gryffindor’s prized seeker, one of Dumbledore’s favorite lions, and a rather popular sixth year.

Tom hated him.

And Harry hated Tom.

It was a rather perfect relationship really. And it was, ironically, the most well functioning relationship in Tom’s life due to the fact that there was no imbalance of power between the two. Harry gave as good as he got, and Tom could only give so much as the boy was such a complete and utter mystery to everyone. He had no obvious weaknesses and the chinks that were visible in his armor were the ones he wore proudly and honestly.

They had one class together-Dumbledore’s Transfiguration class. And if that didn’t rankle Tom enough, Harry’s complete and utter persistence of being as annoying as humanly possible was enough to do so. Harry had been quick to learn that Dumbledore had a tendency to favor his own and he had an out-right habit of favoring anyone over Tom Riddle. Honestly, Dumbledore would believe Jack the Ripper before he believed Tom.

And so, it was with stoic silence that he endured the little balls of parchment hitting the back of his head while he attempted to transfigure his nose in a small handheld mirror. Dolohov, who was sitting in the coveted seat next to him, was watching wide-eyed at the very stupid display with his mouth hanging open. It had been a long time since anyone had picked on Tom Riddle and for good reason.

He was a prefect, at the top of all his classes, Slytherin royalty, and he was actually quite attractive. Many of the female students (regardless of House) wanted to date him and every Slytherin wanted to be seen near him. He had been perfectly content with having nearly everyone in Hogwarts wrapped around his little finger and then those blasted Ministry officials had brought a time traveller to Hogwarts.

Gryffindor had been quite pleased to boast of their new student with his mysterious future, perfect Quidditch skills, and bravery. Although, he could easily tell that even they were a little apprehensive about Harry’s target for his childish pranks. Not only did Tom have to endure little balls of parchment hitting the back of his head, Harry had previously managed to turn his robes pink, had set fire to his Charms notes, put a tarantula in his school bag, and even switched out his favorite quill for one that rearranged his words into total nonsense thirty minutes later. He had been forced to redo an entire day’s worth of assignments but thankfully hadn’t been docked any points.

“Are you ever going to take care of him?” Dolohov asked quietly.

“All in due time,” Tom replied, glaring over his shoulder. Harry had transfigured his nose into a pig snout but it didn’t stop him from giving Tom’s glare a cheeky smile and throwing his final ball of parchment which Tom batted away in mid-air. The Gryffindor girl sitting next to Harry looked downright terrified at the look Tom was giving him and the rest of Slytherins were shifting around uncomfortably as well.

00000

Despite all of this, Harry was really nothing more than a nuisance as Tom worked through piles of homework, attended Slug Club meetings (Harry had been invited but never deigned to show up), and planned for his future. After being forced to revise his plans regarding the Chamber of Secrets, he had decided to start a search for the remaining magical artifacts of the Founders. As such, he spent an inordinate amount of time in the History of Magic section in the library, a section only frequented in the weeks before an exam. In the middle of term, it was nearly deserted. Unfortunately, it was not deserted enough.

He was engrossed in a tome detailing the medieval history of the Hufflepuff family (who had a surprising connection with the Vikings) when a paper bird flapped over to him from a nearby table. He looked up to see Harry Tempus grinning ear to ear and deliberately squased the bird under an extra book. Pointedly looking back to his reading, he heard the distinct sounds of whispers and cast a discrete listening charm he’d learned of in the Restricted Section.  

“Why do you pick on Riddle so much?” asked Enid Longbottom. She was a rather mousy looking Hufflepuff from a family of Gryffindors. How she had managed to get in Harry’s circle of acquaintances, Tom didn’t have the faintest clue. She was likely the least interesting person he’d ever come across and she had a rather unnatural obsession with flowers. Not even interesting, carnivorous flowers. Just run-of-the-mill, mundane flowers.

“Because it’s funny.”

“Nobody ever laughs.”

“That’s because everyone’s so scared of him,” Harry replied. Tom was rather pleased to confirm that Harry knew he wasn’t reacting to him like the others did. At least he wasn’t an entirely oblivious moron.

“You aren’t? He’s one of the most popular kids in the school. One word from him and everyone will abandon you.”

“So?” Harry asked and Tom thought it interesting that he had little to no attachment to his position in the school. That meant Tom couldn’t take it away in order to punish him. So what did the other boy like? What would make him squirm as much as he had tried to make Tom squirm.

“Just be careful is all. Maybe you should lay off of him.”

“But he’s so much fun to pick on! Sometimes he doesn’t even catch me.”

Tom was so alarmed by this information that he immediately gathered his things and fled the library.

00000

It was a few days before Tom found the paper bird from the library buried in his school bag. It was a rather crumpled mess by then but the message inside was loud and clear. It was a rather unflattering doodle of a Slytherin boy being struck by lightning. He supposed the boy was supposed to be him but it was rather difficult to tell because Harry drew like he was a five-year-old. The drawing was even colored in.

He tossed it into the fire.

00000

The next paper bird appeared as he was leaving breakfast one Saturday morning with Avery and Warrington. It was made out of blue paper and was charmed to fly just out of his reach and it made an almighty squawk that scared Warrington so badly he nearly fell down the dungeon stairs. Tom had to blast it out of the air and was then forced to make a hasty retreat lest he receive a detention for casting spells in the corridors.

00000

By far the most obnoxious paper bird was a large pink thing they found sitting in their dormitory when they woke up one morning. How it had gotten in no one knew and Tom had the uncomfortable suspicion that Harry had access to Slytherin House in some way.

This pink monstrosity resisted every attempt to be disposed of by multiplying ten-fold with every spell or touch. In the end they’d had to leave for class, with hundreds of pink paper birds flying and squawking around their beds and trunks.

“Seriously Tom!” Avery snapped, so annoyed that he seemed to forget just who it was he was complaining to. “This kid has got to go!”

“All in due time,” Tom replied. When he arrived at Transfiguration he did something that left Dolohov glaring at his desk. He sat next to Harry, who couldn’t even be bothered to look up from his doodling. With just a few moments to go before Dumbledore was due to appear, he subtly gestured for his fellow Slytherins to occupy the empty desks around them. This effectively left Harry cut off from his Gryffindor allies filtering into the room. His Weasley friend looked a little miffed but didn’t make any noise. At least Tom now knew that he still had some control over the other Houses despite Harry’s insistent attempts to make him look a fool.

“How do I get rid of the birds?” he hissed at him. Tom knew he could have an answer to that question himself before the end of the day but why bother when he could bully it out of the Gryffindor and regain some of his dominance?

“With hugs and kisses,” Harry replied, deeply amused. A couple of girls giggled and were then silenced by Warrington’s glare.

“I’m serious,” Tom said. “Your childish pranks have become a nuisance.”

“That was kind of the point,” Harry told him. “Duh.”

Tom glared at him, something that normally sent people scampering to obey and had, even now, made the rest of the class fall quiet as they watched. However, Harry still didn’t look up so Tom leaned in close and whispered something in his ear. If any teacher ever overheard it he would have been suspended and it had a very profound effect on Harry who stopped doodling, tensed up, and glared at his parchment. This was normally when someone went for their wand and Tom palmed his own, ready for whatever spell Harry could throw at him. But Harry didn’t go for his wand and, really, Tom shouldn’t have been surprised that at the very moment Dumbledore sauntered into the classroom, Harry punched Tom in the mouth so hard he sent the other boy sprawling to the floor.

“Tempus!” Dumbledore snapped, thoroughly surprised at what he’d just seen. “What is going on here?”

Unfortunately, the only two people who could answer that were Tom and Harry. Tom was clutching at his jaw, dearly hoping he still had all his teeth. Harry stood up, grabbed his bag, and left the classroom glaring at him all the way. Dumbledore went after his wayward student and Tom went up to the infirmary because, damn, that had hurt.

00000

“You’re an ass.”

This statement interrupted a sixth year only, intensive study session consisting of Slytherins and Ravenclaws. They were in the Potions classroom, gladly given to them by Professor Slughorn who hadn’t seen fit to babysit them. Harry had come in, unnoticed by all except Tom who would have smirked had his jaw not been bruised down to the very bone. The Gryffindor’s impressive display of violence and subsequent refusal to justify himself to his peers had upset his social standing. However, he had clearly been able to justify himself to Dumbledore which was why he had gotten away with some detentions rather than the suspension he deserved.

“Excuse me?” Tom inquired, lifting an eyebrow.

“You’re an ass,” Harry repeated.

“This study group is by invitation only,” Dolohov seethed. He absolutely despised Harry Tempus and it was almost entirely due to the fact that Harry had quickly captured and kept Tom’s attention in a way no Slytherin had ever been able to.

“I’m not here to study, you prat,” Tempus threw back. Tom stood up before Dolohov could launch himself across the table in an attempt to engage Harry in a brawl.

“Come with me,” Tom ordered, leaving the room without waiting for Harry to argue with him. He was satisfied to hear an angry huff and the scuffle of boots as Harry followed him out of the classroom, down a corridor, and into an abandoned storage room. A flick of his wand and the wall sconces burst into flame. “This childish behavior really needs to st-” he started to scold but he was suddenly dangling in the air by his ankle. The movement was so abrupt that he lost his wand and was helpless as it rolled away.

“Tempus! Put me down!”

The Gryffindor walked around until he could look Tom in the face. He was barely controlling his laughter.

“That was way too easy.”

“I wasn’t expecting you to pull a prank,” Tom replied, thoroughly embarrassed. “Not in private.”

“I’m still angry with you,” Harry confessed. He waved his wand and Tom dropped to the floor in an undignified heap. He leapt to his feet. “That was a low blow you know.”

“Says the boy who actually threw a punch,” Tom snapped, straightening his robes. Harry stepped into his personal space and slipped his wand back into his pocket. Then he leaned in and kissed him.

“It was a really mean thing to say,” Harry said.

“But it wasn’t untrue.”

“Mmmm,” Harry hummed. Tom thought he was going to kiss him again but instead found himself on his back when Harry used his left leg to sweep his feet out from under him.

“Oof!”

Then a boot came down his arm as he attempted to reach his wand. Harry loomed over him, green eyes cold and hard. Tom preferred him when he looked like this. When he looked ready to tear someone to shreds.

“Let’s get one thing very clear, Riddle. I may not be able to outsmart you and I certainly can’t out manipulate you, but I am _not_  one of your minions. You don’t tell me what to do; you don’t control me and if you ever threaten one of my own again, I’ll kill you. Got it?”

“Yes,” Tom replied, immediately. He didn’t even have to ponder if Harry was capable of carrying out that threat. He wholeheartedly believed that the other boy could and would kill him.

“Good,” Harry said, eyes softening. He removed his arm and helped Tom back to his feet. Then he kissed him once on the cheek and left.

Tom smiled.

He might just be falling in love.

00000

Harry’s behavior continued at the same pace as before the punch. The only real difference was that the Slytherins seemed to be cottoning on to the fact that he and Harry were not in fact enemies but a couple. Well, sometimes they were enemies but only when Harry was being entirely too Gryffindor for his own good. Honestly, it had been entirely reckless to run into the Forbidden Forest in search of something called a Nargle. Tom was fairly certain this story was a cover-up, but the rest of the school thought it a wonderful little adventure.

The one Slytherin who seemed absolutely devastated was Walburga Black. She had been particularly intent in landing the nearly untouchable Tom Riddle. She had flirted, bribed, and threatened her way into his inner circle. She had a tendency to lightly touch his arm, giggle at even his smallest attempts at humor, and asked his opinion on everything. She had vilified Harry when she thought it appropriate and had turned entirely jealous when rumors started to circulate in the common room about the two boys being a couple.

She had even gone so far as to dose Harry with a love potion. She was clever enough not to even attempt it on Tom, but she had also been smart enough to make the recipient of Harry’s unnatural and sudden attraction be one of his fellow Gryffindors. The unsuspecting girl was a fourth year that Harry hung out with from time to time. She had been completely frightened by his behavior, mostly because the love potion had kicked into effect in the Charms corridor directly in front of Tom’s clique.

“What the hell?” Abraxas asked, watching in confusion as Amelia Lockhart sent terrified glances their way, half afraid they were going to attack and half afraid they weren’t going to help. “Avery, pull him away.” Avery hustled to obey. He and Mulciber were able to pull Harry away from the Gryffindor and marched him down to the dungeons where they deposited him in a broom closet and locked him in. Tempus immediately began to pound on the door threatening to set them on fire if they didn’t let him out.

It took Rosier five minutes to find Tom and inform him of what had occurred. He knew immediately what must have happened and why. It was Walburga’s rather crude attempt to make Tom believe that Harry was uninterested. As if half the Slytherin upperclassmen couldn’t spot the effects of a standard love potion a mile away. He glared at her across the common room before standing and crossing over to her table. The look on his face was so thunderous it sent first years running from the room.

Walburga didn’t look very at ease either.

“Give me the antidote,” he seethed. “Now.”

He knew she would have it hidden somewhere in her trunk just in case. The girl leapt up and ran to her dorm. Tom waited with his arms crossed, glaring at Walburga’s friends, one of whom looked close to tears. Walburga handed him a small blue bottle and he left the common room with Rosier.

It took about twenty minutes to force the antidote down Harry’s throat and when it took effect the Gryffindor was thoroughly embarrassed.

“I have to apologize to Amelia,” he said and Tom spared him some of his ire.

“Really?” he questioned. “ _She’s_ who you want to apologize to?”

“This is not my fault! I don’t owe you anything!”

Tom crossed his arms.

“Oh, please,” Harry said, rolling his eyes. “Don’t be a bitch about this.”

Tom didn’t talk to him for a week.

00000

When Tom visited the Quidditch pitch near the end of the Gryffindor practice, Harry drifted over to where he was sitting in the stands, reading a book. Harry landed lightly and moved the book down with one hand, forcing Tom to acknowledge him.

“Does this mean you’re going to talk to me?” he asked, smiling gently. He leaned forward recklessly and kissed Tom on the cheek.

“I suppose,” Tom replied, indicating for Harry to sit down next to him. “Did you ever figure out why I was mad at you in the first place?”

“Because I got dosed,” Harry said. “Reminded you I was vulnerable. Can’t change that though. I’m not a Slytherin. I don’t think of every little thing that could go wrong and I’m really not that paranoid. I probably should be considering everything I’ve been through but I’m just not that way is all. Besides, if we were both as paranoid as you were, we’d probably never gotten together in the first place. Right?”

Despite, Harry’s rambling explanation, he had mostly figured out why Tom had been mad at him when he had been the victim, not the perpurtator.

“What’d you do to her anyway? Nobody in Gryffindor has a clue but she looked really pale in Transfiguration.”

“I have not done anything yet.”

“Are you gonna?”

“All in due time.”

00000

Tom and Harry liked to meet on Sunday evenings in the Room of Requirement. Harry was very adept at getting what he wanted from the Room which Tom deduced meant he had a fair bit of practice with the Magic there. They always spent the night when they went, mostly because whenever Tom tried to put his clothes back on, Harry would just paw at them again.

Over time, Tom had learned things about Harry that no one but him could truly know. How he looked after sex, how he was instantly turned on if you kissed him behind the left ear, and how he liked to cuddle in his sleep. No, really, Harry loved to cuddle in his sleep. Often Tom was immobilized for eight hours and he had even teased that Harry’s Patronus should be an octopus such was his ability to use all his limbs to trap Tom to the bed.

“I like you.”

Tom snorted in amusement. He hardly expected Harry to tell him he loved him. After all, this was the first time Harry had even admitted to liking him. They had been having sex for a while now and sometimes they even acted like a couple. But more often than not, they were arguing and they were usually arguing over Harry’s pranks.

“Do you like me too?” Harry asked, kissing Tom’s bare shoulder gently.

“Maybe.”

“Do you think you’ll ever come to like me? Or are you always going to be a stone cold ass?”

“Oh, no. I’ll come to like you,” Tom said, smirking as he laced their fingers together.

“When?”

“All in due time.”

 

 


End file.
